ALIGNMENTS (THE GITA LINE):

Prior to the erection of the primitive megaliths the spot was selected. The megalith makers or the megalith astronomers chose the location where there would be at least two hills in the opposite directions so that they could be connected with the megalith in a linear mode.

Firstly, the megalith was needed to be placed upon the alignmental line of the two hills in the opposite direction. The next task would be to find the spot where the megalith would be fixed on this alignmental line? This was done perhaps done  by a) aligning the megaliths in the complex with the other hills of the other directions or  b) by finding the exact position on the alignmental line from where one of the hills or another megalith or a pond or any other sacred spot would be in the east, west, north or south.

Therefore hills in the landscape were the first requisite of megalith making as these hills to which the megaliths were aligned form the outer periphery of the megalithic temple. Therefore, no megalith is complete without alignments.

Alignments which I have named Gita Lines after my ailing mother is a treat to watch at the site itself. The megaliths of Rola, Punkree Burwadih, Gurua, Furuka, and Chokahatu all display superb engineering of alignments rather the Gita Lines

HENGES:

The henges are supposed to be the oldest megaliths of the world. Henges are yet not understood features with many Indian scholars and archaeologists. Henges are in actuality soil work on the earth made as symbols of the now obsolete fertility cult. During hoary antiquity prior to the raising of stones the hunters and gatherers buried their dead in such henges. Subsequently, the raising of megaliths was undertaken.

Whether every megalithic complex was raised on henges or not is difficult to deduce as these henges must have eroded with time.

The U henge of Banadag upon which the menhirs are planted, though eroded with time is still vaguely visible. The circular henge of Salga is large and it still can be seen. The circle and the U on the ground are icons of the womb or the vagina of the Mother Goddess to whom the temple was dedicated.

There are many circular ponds with raised sides which to my understanding were the primitive henges. These primitive earthworks got converted into ponds once strict megalithism died. Such ponds have revealed many metal urns with metal or stone tools, coins and even the remains of the dead. Most strikingly such ponds lie on the Gita Lines and they have been found close to megalithic neighbourhood.

This circular pond with raised sides was perhaps converted from a circular henge as it lies on the alignmental Gita lines between two hills. The vicinity is interspersed with megaliths.

CUPMARKS:

Cupmarks have today been granted the eminence of rock art. Not many archaeologists (save a very few) are au fait with these small circular engravings known as cupules or the cupmarks. Many archaeologists go to the extent of regarding cupmarks as geological formation. There are no doubts of the fact that cupmarks were a major appendage of primitive megaliths.

I have not been able to locate any cupmark on vertical stones; I have found them on the horizontal stones in megalithic complexes. I have neither spotted them on dolmens nor on menhirs but on capstones and horizontal stones.

Most of the megaliths house a two rowed 16 cupmarked arrangement. Were these two rowed cupmarks different from the at random made cupmarks? The village children play a game with small pebbles in these small cupules.

Why were cupmarks made at the first place? Scholars believe that the cupmarks were the representations of the Mother Goddess. Some also assume that these cupmarks represented the 29 day menstrual cycle of the woman along with the same number days of the phases of the moon.

It also could be that the two rowed 16 cupmarked composition on the stone were originally intended to work as the now defunct16 month megalithic calendar.

In the present times this 16 cup marked engravings are used as a village game.

Many of the prehistoric megaliths of Jharkhand as Rola, Hesalong, Basantpur, Bhepur, Punkree Burwadih, Birbir, and Chokahatu accommodate the cupules. Many do not have them. It could be that such megaliths were made at a much later period of time when the matriarchy ended and the patriarchy set in.

POTTERY:

The normal pottery associated with megaliths is Black Pottery, pottery with red slips, Black and red pottery, Black on Red wares, Russet wares etc. Black has always been associated with death, red has been the menstrual blood symbolising fertility.

IRON:

Iron in India has been associated with the incoming Aryans and Painted Grey Wares. Iron is also linked with the Austric Asuras of Jharkhand. The Asuras are an offshoot of the Mundaric tribe and so are their language which is also regarded a sister of the Mundas. The Asuras were believed to have first entered Jharkhand with their technology of iron and their own brand of megalith making. The Mundas had followed suit, and they fought wars with the Asuras and pushed them to what we now know as Chattisgarh.

The Asuras moved there with their knowledge of iron making and megalithism. Iron had thereafter spread to the rest of South India.

Prior to that iron is linked with the advent of patriarchy as iron in megalithic concept is phallic and stones are female representations.

TIME PERIOD:

Megalith making in Jharkhand is a continued process. The megaliths of Jharkhand cannot be bound within a single time frame. The advent of the proto Austroloid in North Chotanagpur has to be around 2^nd millennium BC. The structural architectures of the megaliths of North Chotanagpur vary from the ones of South Jharkhand.

The microliths found in situ around Punkree Burwadih were sent by me for dating in Dresden, Germany whose results revealed that the tools as per their patina formation were made beyond 3000 BP.

The dating however cannot confirm the chronology of the shrine but this that human habitation was here at that period.

But it is her architecture that proves that she was one of the earliest temples of the state and that this shrine apart from being an observatory was also a Mother shrine having concomitance with the changing forms of the sacred mother mountain encircling the megaliths, should be dated to about 2000 BP.

Today megalith making has changed with time, as today megalithism is associated chiefly with death much unlike the megaliths of the archaic times. Megaliths were a sort of bridge between the sky and the earth. Menhirs were planted in relation to the sky (refer to the diagram) therefore was the revered most. Hence a burial in its sacred precincts was a must as these stones were connected with the heavens.

The custom of burying the charred bones and other remains of the dead had continued among the peasants of in and around PB till even a few years ago, till staunch Brahmanism set in and today they immerse the remains in the Holy Ganga in place of any megalith..

THE MEGALITHS BUILDERS:

Who were the megalith builders is the million dollar question. Megaliths were brought into the sub continent by the various incoming proto Austroloid Mundaric tribes. Their traditions speak of a journey into India from place elsewhere. The Santali folklores are clearer by description. Numerous evidences indicate Chaldea in Sumeria to be their original abode. Information reveals that Ur was their original deity. Their traditions confirm that they had spread the world over taking along them their culture, customs and their rich language and their megalithic tradition. There are countless evidences that they had spread all over the world

A little known fact is that the Mundaric languages had influenced many languages all over the world including those of India. There are many European languages which is influenced by the Mundaric language and

The Austric tribes and even the Dravidian Kurukh speaking Oraons claim them as the builders of the Indus valley Civilisation.  No one really listens to them. No one takes them seriously that most of the names of the villages, rivers, mountains of Idea is not Sanskrit but Mundaric.

All over the migratory routes as described in their tales lie megaliths. The Austric Mundas entered India through Kashmir trespassing the Swat Valley, Asota etc and their other wing entered the mainland India through Rajasthan and Punjab crossing the Harappan towns. They both migrated towards Gujarat. From there one of their wing moved towards UP the other travelled towards Nagpur, Deccan and down south.

The other group reached Bihar and a few went towards the North east, some crossed towards the South east and some entered Jharkhand. The first to enter Jharkhand were the iron smelting Asuras. The Mundas fought wars with the Asuras and they were believed to have driven away the Asuras towards Chattiasgarh and more down south. The Asuras carried their iron smelting technoliogy with them. Here the Tribals from Jharkhand met the earlier tribals.

The presence of the megalithic Mundas was so strong that their languages had influenced the Dravidian Malayalam and Tamil languages.

But there is also evidence that prior to the arrival of the Austric tribes in India, the Dravidian and even the tribals themselves the country was filled by the Mongoloids and a section of a tribe like the Gonds filled the country who themselves revered stones and also worshipped the Mother Goddess in her recumbent form.